• May 6, 2011

Coca-Cola is pulling out the stops for its summer-long 125th anniversary. 

Initiatives include commemorative packaging and special displays in stores; two "125 days of prizes" promotions (one for families through My Coke Rewards, one for teens using text-to-win codes under Coke product caps); anniversary promotions at various major Coke-sponsored events; and a "Day of Service" during which Coca-Cola employees will get the day off to volunteer in their communities.

The supporting national advertising campaign will include "125 Years of Sharing Happiness" messaging in ads airing during programming such as "American Idol" and the "Coca-Cola 600," as well as in-cinema anniversary ads.

But at least one organization is not celebrating the anniversary. In a column posted on MomsRising.org, and also excerpted on Huffington Post, Michael Jacobson, executive director of nutrition advocacy nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), uses the occasion to lambast Coca-Cola's declared strategic plan to double its global revenue by 2020 by targeting teens, as well as "aging and affluent consumers."

Calling Coca-Cola's 30% decline in per-capita sales since 1998 "one of the best bits of health news around," Jacobson asserts that it will be a "public health disaster" if the company succeeds in "selling more Coke to more kids more often everywhere in the world."

Jacobson blasts Coke's main ingredient, high-fructose corn syrup ("while no better or worse than regular sugar, that ingredient promotes weight gain and its offspring: obesity, diabetes, and heart disease"), maintains that its "industrial 'caramel coloring' is contaminated with two carcinogens"; and adds that its cans are lined with "the controversial, endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A."

He goes on to write that non-diet carbonated soft drinks, which CSPI terms "liquid candy," are the largest source of American calories (accounting for about 7% of total calories), and that average per-day consumption of such beverages is two, 12-ounce cans among males 13 to 18 and a can-and-one-third among females in the same age range.

"I hope that in observance of this anniversary, policymakers and parents see through Coke's manipulative marketing and do everything they can to drive Coke consumption down even further," Jacobson concludes. "Instead of doubling soda sales...let's commit to cutting soda consumption far more by 2020. That would be a milestone worth celebrating."